27 January 2014

Debut of The Lacquer Legion: Reinvention

Hello my dears!

Today I have a super fun post for you :D I have joined up with many other nail bloggers for a new worldwide collaboration: The Lacquer Legion. Similar to the old Polish Days collabs, once a month we will have a theme around which we all base a manicure to share with each other and with our readers!

The first theme is Reinvention. Lots of room to explore with this one. I have a nail design which, I believe, covers the topic in many ways. Let's get to it!

Lots of new things going on here! First, let's start with my nail shape. Anyone who has visited my blog before will likely notice the difference here. I've always had square/squoval nails. However, I kind of wanted a temporary change, plus I had broken off the corners of my thumbnail and one on my middle finger. I decided to try for an almond-shape nail, and ended up with something between almond and plain oval. I haven't decided if I like it or not, but it is new for me! So that's one reinvention.

Next, the base colour for this manicure, and a true reinvention. It's a frankenpolish! I started with a slightly sheer, frosty purple polish by Jane called Shock Value. I did not get any photos of it before, but it was one my mother had given me and I never really wore it. Was just kind of "meh". I added in a frosty pink and blue, neither of which I ever really used (I think they were both Petites, though) and then--the important bit!--a no-name thin glitter mix containing silver, gold, and rose gold small glitters. The resulting colour is not far off the original, but more rich, and sparkly! I love it, but can't think of a name. Any suggestions shall be considered ;)

A swatch of my franken when it was first created, and before I filed my nails.

I then went for a sort of unique type of French tip on my newly-rounded nails, using Dollicious Polish's Scene Stealer. I used a striper and then a detail brush to create a round tip with a sort of spire, like so...

And just to be extra-classy, painted the undersides as well. It looks very silver in this next shot, but it's really a cool-toned rosy gold.

Anyway, next was to add the "gemstones". I wanted to capture the look of those swirly, coloured polished rocks. I used Ulta Snow White, CoverGirl Outlast in Vio-Last , and a toothpick to create the swirly dots. I pre-made these on a plastic bag a couple of days beforehand, because the blobs do take a while to dry, and...

So yeah. I just dabbed on a drop of the white polish, then a bit of purple, swirled them around with the toothpick (but not too much), and allowed them to dry. Then once I had my cute gold tip in place, I carefully peeled them off with tweezers and used clear polish to adhere them to the middle of the nail. Finally, I used gold microbeads to carefully frame the "stone", giving it a sort of cameo/brooch look (I hope).

with the base colour in hand :)

The topcoat I used to seal it all in is KBShimmer Clearly On Top.

And one more in lower lighting. I love this shot :) shows the richness of Scene Stealer and how it goes well with those beads!

That's all for today! I hope you enjoyed my take on the Reinvention theme, and that you'll check out the other bloggers' great manis too. Click here to check out the Facebook page and see all the other contributions, and I'll see you next time! xoxo

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What you lookin' at?

Hello, I'm Amanda! Welcome to my blog. I love art and painting, and nail colour/design has always been a passion of mine! I'm not a professional, just an enthusiastic hobbyist. By trade, I'm a full-time nerd-for-hire ("the IT guy", if you will). I also spend a lot of time playing Xbox, dancing, and drinking beer. Those things are all fun, but doing them with fabulous blingy nails makes it even better! xoxo